Hi, Yesterday I went to see a mom that I had been helping over the telephone, the baby is 3 weeks old and he had been given many bottles. She was trying to get him to nurse, for two days prior she had been using a finger feeder because the baby was nipple confused, da. I couldn't see her immediatly because it was her sabbith so I had to wait until Sunday. I made up a packed of BF info for her and figured I would find a nipple confused baby and we would go from there. When I got there I looked at the baby, he has Downs syndrome. The mom never told me, even after I got there. I stood there trying to figure out if and how to ask her about the Downs. I asked her about his birth, about when he went to the pedi, what did the dr say, everything going well, how did he nurse in the hospital(he didn't)? she said she had all this milk and she decided after she came home to nurse. I said well he has such a small and beautiful mouth, lets see his tongue. I figured if she wasn't going to say I would just proceed. He sucked rythmicly on my finger and I did some sucking exersizes with him and then we tryed to get him on. And we tryed and tryed and finally he didn't just grasp the nipple and he got a good latch and he nursed, ya know one of those moments where you feel "thank GOD he's on". He nursed for a while, and came off. Supprisingly the mom's supply is not a problem she pumped with a hand pump for 30 seconds and had about half an ounce. Well anyway, I still wanted to talk to her about the Downs but we worked with the latch and his sucking, and positioning. Then after we couldn't get him on again she finger fed him the half ounce and he didn't want anymore. She looked at me and said, you knew he was Downs, didn't you. I just smiled and said yes. What a relief for her to say, now I could talk to her about that. Should I have said something before? What if I was wrong, she had a round face, could he have looked like Down's and not been? Why didn't she tell me before, I specificly asked if there was anything else over the telephone. I would have brought her Downs information and I would have prepaired myself better (I've only worked with two down's babies) in hindsight I did all the right things with the positioning but I really wish I would have known in advance and even for the first hour or so I was there I would have liked to have talked to her more about it. Well she was just happy to get him to latch at all and today I am filling up an envelope with stuff for her, I'm going next to the archives to do some more reading! Thanks for listening!! I was all weird when I left there! I kept thinking, did I do everything I could of for this baby and mom, I did the best I could, and the mom and baby are happier. Its so great to go to a place and tell my story, I'm sure I'm not the only one this has happened to. Rene Fisher, BA, LLLL, IBCLC Middletown, NY [log in to unmask]